Where would we be now?

[Faith Augustin]

35th Saun, 717

Their song?

Faith really did not understand why she was nervous. She had lived here, had slept in a bed for the first time here, learned to eat with utensils here. Even such memories as bathing a demonic cat and chasing Theodore Venora with a broom handle were enough to make her smile. Of course, the most important thing that had happened here had been a question and an answer from the man who had bought her.

Do you want to be freed, Faith?

Seven words to change the world, she thought with a smile as she walked down the street she had walked so often before. Rather like 'we'll be parents then, you and I' and everything that had happened since. Tristan had asked her if she wanted to be free and she had spoken to him, as always, the simple truth. Yes, she wanted to be free. It had hurt him and Faith did not want to do that, but she could serve so much better as a free woman and, of course, she was in love.

Faith sighed as her footsteps took her on the familiar route. She remembered walking home here after the Venora brand, after she and Lady Elyna had flown here, after Ne'haer and Treid. A hundred hundred times of walking these streets, from the markets, from work, from the House of Roses. So many things that now, she saw very differently than how she had seen them then. Yet, she could not view Tristan negatively, as Padraig did. He had, in a very real sense, prepared her to be free. If she and Padraig had met whilst she was still under Jamal's ownership, Faith sometimes wondered what would have happened. Jamal would never have freed her and Padraig would have been horrified at the bruises which were a constant. He might have objected to the victory curls, but they were better than the way she had been instructed to dress for Jamal.

Standing outside the door, Faith shouldered the bag she was carrying and she raised her hand to knock. Once she would have walked in, but she did not live here any more and besides, they were not in each others' lives as they had been. He was not her owner, she no longer his slave. Now he was a Duke and she wondered, if she had said no that trial, if she had stayed with him, what would have happened. Or if they had not been, not ever, master and slave. Would they still be friends? Would she be a Duchess?

Faith smiled as she knocked the door. She didn't know what would have happened or would have been. She knew only that she was where she was meant to be and she shared her life now with the man whose soul was made from the same substance as hers. Whatever could have been, happier was not it.

As Tristan opened the door, Faith smiled and her delight at seeing him was most genuine. "Good morning, Your Grace," she said, dropped a perfectly executed curtsy and then, without pause or concern, the former slave hugged her previous owner. "It is good to see you! I have missed you." Faith was unsurprised to realise that there were tears on her cheeks as she hugged him and she looked at him in delight at seeing him again.

[Tristan Venora]

Tristan had returned to Andaris because there were a lot of things happening in the Kingdom that needed his attention at the moment. Just the trial before he had attended the royal wedding, and on the 39th the trial against his aunt and uncle would take place. Under normal circumstances it would have occupied most of his thoughts – Alistair had accused his parents of abuse, and House Venora’s future was completely uncertain now – but as it was he could only think of her. Faith had let him know that she would visit Rynmere.

Faith, the woman he had presumed death just the season before. Faith who he had thought had given birth to their daughter, stolen her back from Aelig and then died in his arms. Faith, the first woman that he had ever loved and that had chosen another man after he had freed her. There had been a time when he had been tempted to drop a sculpture on the terrible tutor’s head because Padraig hadn’t deserved her in his opinion, but now he was mostly glad that she was still alive and that she had found somebody.

He only thought about what would have happened if Padraig (Did the man even have a last name?) hadn’t existed occasionally. Would Faith be Duchess Faith Venora now and raise Ayla with him?

He froze as he heard a knock on the door and then he abruptly ran towards it, opened it and just stared at the woman that stood outside. His heart was beating furiously in his chest, and he almost couldn’t breathe. It was really her! She looked just like what she had looked like when he had last seen her! “You don’t have to call me Your …” he began and abruptly stopped as she hugged him. He put his arms around her and just held her for a moment, and then he reluctantly let go of her again because she wasn’t his anymore.

“I have missed you too, more than you can probably imagine”, he replied and then gestured for her to come in. Faith would be able to notice that Tristan hadn’t changed much since those trials in Andaris either even though he was a Duke now. He still had a tendency to dress after the newest fashion which currently included those strange brown pants. While a lot of men his age went shirtless at the moment, he was wearing a shirt though because he wasn’t particularly fond of baby saliva and baby vomit on his bare chest.

“I was actually going to send you another letter”, he told her as he led her into the kitchen where they had sat together so many times. The look on his face darkened momentarily. “There is something the matter with Ayla, and I need your advice.” As he said that a young red haired woman, one of his bodyguards, stepped out of Faith’s former room that had been turned into a playroom for Ayla, a little girl on her arm.

Ayla looked just like Faith with her pale skin and her dark hair, and she had the most beautiful blue eyes imaginable. She also looked as if she was almost an arc old even though she had only been born approximately two seasons before. Tristan nodded at the woman and took Ayla from her. The woman then left so that Faith and Tristan would be able to talk alone.

“This is her”, Tristan said. “This is my daughter.”

[Faith Augustin]

"I have been so worried about you," the young woman said as they made their way into the kitchen. Faith looked around with an almost wistful expression on her face. She had prepared his meals and hers here, washed dishes and cleaned, cooked and baked cakes. In this place, they had sat and eaten together like two free people. She had hummed as she worked and she had felt a level of contentment which she had never felt to that point.

Something the matter with Ayla? Faith frowned in response and she looked at him with concern in her eyes. "Something the matter with her? What's wrong?" Faith was emotional at the moment, anyhow, although she was not sharing that with anyone at this point. Her concern, therefore, was very genuine and she added, "I'll be happy to help any way I... oh...."

Faith's hand flew to her mouth and the emotions which she had felt all trial spilled over as tears fell from her eyes. The little girl in Tristan's arms was theirs. Faith knew, of course, that she wasn't, but the cruel trick which had been played on Tristan was just too much for Faith to bear. This child, too, deserved to be who she was and Faith felt tears fall in a way that they hadn't since the kidnapping of last season. "Oh, Tristan." Faith looked at him and she wanted to say something, anything that would put this right. He had held her, or thought he had, as she died in his arms and placed their daughter in his care. This child who looked like her, so like her and yet with his eyes.

But he needed her now. They both did.

Faith felt a hundred emotions, a thousand of them maybe and she looked at the man whose bed she had shared before she knew what freedom truly was. This little girl could have been theirs and Faith felt another wave of emotion wash over her as she considered the babe which she knew she was carrying inside her. Still too early in the pregnancy to tell anyone and not something she wanted to talk about, Faith still felt a wrench as she looked at the child they could have made, her and her owner.

She took a step back, a step away. It was too much, it was just all too much. This child could have been her Rose, but that was all done by Aelig. Wasn't it? Vri had told her. What had Vri told her? Faith realised, her head spinning, that she had never really looked back at that part of the conversation with Vri. Why was that, she wondered, yet she knew. She was afraid. So very afraid. Why did she grieve for a child that was dead before life, that was what Vri had asked her and Faith knew, knew that he was telling her that Rose was not real.

But what if. What if the soul..? No. No, Vri had told her that she had to move on and let Rose pass and so she had. This was not her daughter. Hot tears poured down Faith's cheeks and she sat down on the chair, a wave of dizziness causing her cheeks to pale even further.

But he needed her. He was Tristan and he needed her. So, Faith looked up at him and tried to get herself together. There was something wrong? What sort of something wrong? Trying to clear her head, Faith looked at the little girl and she realised that she was far too developed for her age. Opening her mouth to make a scientific observation around that, she spoke in her usual, quiet tone.

"She looks like us." Fresh tears fell and Faith let out a gulping sob as she fought to keep control and failed, dismally. "She really does."

[Tristan Venora]

“I had such a hard time believing that you weren’t her mother“, Tristan said as he sat down at the table next to Faith, little Ayla in his arms. His voice was soft and gentle because he didn’t want to upset his daughter, but the expression on his face betrayed his real thoughts. Tristan had always been a hopelessly optimistic and happy young man, but the events of the past couple of seasons had really challenged him in that regard. There had been times when he had found his life almost impossible to bear. He still didn’t know why Aelig had picked him as a victim. Coincidence? Had the Immortal been bored? Had he thought that it would be fun to break somebody that enjoyed life so much?

“Even after you wrote that letter. I didn’t want to accept the truth. Of course Ayla can’t help who she is. She didn’t choose to be Aelig’s child, and I love her all the same, but still …” He stopped speaking abruptly as he noticed that Faith had begun to cry. He was about to tell her that there was no reason to be sad, that she should smile because they were still alive and still there after everything that had happened, but was that really the case? It wasn’t over yet.

So he simply sat with her instead and reached out to her to hold her hand, if she wanted that. He almost changed his mind about telling her what was happening to Ayla, but there was nobody else that he could ask. He had begun to trust Alistair a little more after he had actually given him useful political advice and sent one of his men to Oakleigh, but he didn’t want to tell him about Ayla’s problem. Who knew what his cousin would do?

So he took a deep breath and told her, “Ayla is growing much too quickly. At first I didn’t think anything of it since I didn’t know much about babies. I thought it was just the expensive food I bought her or even the clean air in Oakleigh, but after a while it became obvious that something wasn’t right. I’m not sure if she grows so quickly because she has magic inside of her or suffers from a terrible disease.”

He paused again. When he continued, he was talking very quickly because he wanted to get it over with and because he wasn’t sure if he’d have the courage to tell Faith what he was worried about if he talked normally. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but at little Ayla in his arms who looked so happy and full of life and had no idea what the future held in store for her.

“I read about those children in a book once. They look like little old people and have all the health problems that come with old age, but they are completely normal inside, and they die when they are still in their teens. I don’t want that to happen to Ayla! Can you take a look at her and help her please? She doesn’t deserve this after all that she’s been through in her short life!”

[Faith Augustin]

Faith looked at Tristan and she smiled, although it went nowhere near her eyes. Those told the story of her emotions, just how much this was impacting her. She knew that it had been hard for Tristan and she wanted to try and make sure that she was there for him, now. Yet she could not help the tears she shed and when he sat and held her hand, Faith clutched on to his hand and she gulped herself into the best amount of calm that she could. By all the Immortals, how she wished that she had thought about this before coming, how she wanted to run out of the door. Not because of Tristan, not because of the baby. They were, in fact, the reason she stayed.

No, she wanted to run out of the door and not face this situation because it hurt her so much.

She squeezed his hand and smiled, trying to mimic her usual expression. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't allow my emotions to get the better of me in such a way." Once, she realised, she would have been able to control them, especially in front of him. Faith felt truly surprised as she recognised that about herself. What she failed to take into account, of course, was the pregnancy which they had told no one about. To her mind, she had become weaker than she had been.

But now was not the time for that. She would worry about that, and realise the truth, later.

"Oh, Tristan, you must have been so worried. It isn't that." What Tristan was talking about was a very rare and currently incurable disease. These were what Faith specialised in and, during her study of the rot, Faith had undertaken extensive research on other incurable and terminal diseases. As always, she was trying to ascertain a pattern. She looked at Tristan with earnest eyes. "Those children show failure to thrive and they also have a very distinctive appearance. Not at all like this beautiful young woman." She smiled at the baby who looked so very like her.

"How is Ayla doing in her development? Why don't you and I sit and play some games with her? Things like sorting shapes, and colours and numbers. I'll check to see if I can spot anything that you should be worried about?" She smiled and motioned to the floor. "I brought you some gifts for her, but better that she's playing with familiar things. Isn't that right, Ayla?" If Tristan was happy to, Faith then would move and sit on the floor and play. Her and Tristan and the baby that looked just like the two of them who had been placed in his arms by a woman who looked exactly like her and who had then died. Faith pushed all of that out of the way and focused on the little girl; she tried to make sure that she had fun and was relaxed, all the while Faith observed her and used her medical knowledge to assess what, if anything, was wrong with her.

"I heard a story one, you know," she said with a bright smile to Tristan. "About children who are the children of Immortals and mortals. About how they can have special powers. I.." Faith considered and then looked at Ayla with a smile before turning to Tristan. "I might be able to be more specific, but I'd need to take a sample of blood." Either way, she reassured him, she was quite sure that it wasn't the disease he'd read about. Depending on how Ayla performed as they played, she might have different theories but if the child seemed to be normal or even above average, then Faith would consider that the mortalborn theory was more and more likely.

[Tristan Venora]

“No?“ Tristan asked as if he doubted Faith as she told him that Ayla didn’t have that disease. He didn’t know much about incurable diseases, but what he knew sounded pretty scary, and it seemed just like Aelig’s idea of fun to give his child a pretty scary, incurable disease.

He looked at the little girl who seemed so happy and healthy in spite of her rapid aging and who her other parent might be, and then he abruptly turned back to Faith and just stared at her for a few moments before he nodded.

“Okay. I’ll trust you. She definitely doesn’t have failure to thrive. It’s just … it’s just that she looks like she’s nearly an arc old and crawling and making all kinds of sounds even though she’s only two seasons old and shouldn’t be able to do much more than lift her head.”

“I read up on baby development and such when it became clear that there was something wrong with her”, he explained. For a moment the old Tristan was back, the Tristan that expected to be praised because he had done something well.

“She’s intelligent as well”, he added. There was a hint of pride in his voice, even though her intelligence might just be another symptom. “Sometimes when I look at her I have the feeling that she understands everything even though she can’t speak yet.”

“I’ll get her toys. Can you watch her in the meantime?” he asked as Faith suggested that they play with her. He said a few encouraging words to Ayla and gently sat her on the floor in front of Faith, quickly disappeared into Faith’s former room and returned with a box full of stuff. There were an old teddy bear that had once belonged to him, a doll and a lot of colourful wooden blocks, some of which had numbers and letters on them, among other things.

“Look what I have here!” he said to Ayla and emptied the box in front of her. The little girl looked confused for a moment, and then she started to crawl towards the toys, babbling happily as she did so. She moved straight towards the teddy bear at first, but then she spotted her favourite book. It was made of some sort of thick, soft cloth, and it had pictures of flowers and baby animals in it.

She leafed through it, laughed, pointed and laughed again.

“Sometimes she tries to eat the book as well”, Tristan explained and sat down opposite of Faith. It occurred to him that they looked just like a family now, but he tried not to think about it too much. “Or the teddy bear. She’s really weird, but that’s why I love her!”

“We are both weird, aren’t we?” he asked Ayla who looked up at him for a moment before she continued to play.

“Do you … do you think that she really is a Mortalborn of Aelig?” he asked as Faith spoke about children of Immortals and mortals. He’d pretty much assumed that since Faith had told him that she was not Ayla’s mother. A man getting pregnant and giving birth seemed weird, even to him (Where would the baby come out?), but he didn’t know of any other Immortals that wanted to ruin his life, so that had to be it. “Do you know if this here will ever stop?”

“Her blood?” he asked. He didn’t like the idea of anybody taking Ayla’s blood, not even Faith, but then he realized that that might be the only way to find out what was wrong with her. “Promise me that it won’t hurt her!”

[Faith Augustin]

He looked at her for a while, like he wasn't sure whether he was going to believe her or not. Faith didn't mind that, simply met his gaze and waited for him to make his assessment. Their relationship was at once both very complex and as straightforward as it had always been; he needed to decide if she knew what she was talking about and there was nothing she could say which would persuade him one way or another. She had been his slave for half an arc or more and, in that time, he grew to know her as she did him. He knew, Faith was quite sure, that she would not speak if she was not certain of what she said.

It transpired that he did know just that and Faith looked at Tristan and smiled. "You're worried about her, of course you are." Faith had shared Tristan's bed, his home and his life, she had spent a lot of time focusing on trying to understand him, to understand his needs and wants and wishes. As his slave, that had been her duty and Faith took her duty very seriously indeed. Everything that he told her suggested that the little girl had something very significantly different about her, but that made sense in terms of her birth.

With a smile to Ayla, Faith looked at her and nodded. "We can have fun. It's very possible that she does understand more than she can say. Understanding comes before words, I believe." She sat on the floor and distracted Ayla with a game of peek-a-boo until Tristan returned and then she chose the book to play with. "Oh look at this! What a pretty blue flower. Like this brick, Ayla. Blue." Faith had a good idea, as a doctor, what it was that Ayla should be able to do and what she was doing and there was no doubting it, the baby was advanced. "Give the blue brick to Daddy, Ayla. Clever girl!" She clapped and smiled and tried not to feel what she felt.

Tristan had seen Faith in a lot of different situations, but she'd never been like this with him. Focused on the baby sitting there with them, she was playing. Faith had never played, it wasn't in her nature. Her gaze looked up at him with something akin to amazement as he asked if Ayla was Aelig's baby. He was serious she realised. Ok. Well, that might pose some problems.

"She's probably chewing things because some teeth are coming through. Things to chew are good, then, they soothe the gums. But no, I don't think she's Aelig's." Faith kept playing with Ayla as she explained. "The Immortal Famula came to see me not so long ago, to bless me again." Faith had a tatoo on each wrist now, not just one, and her hand lifted to show him the one on her throat. Three times blessed of Famula, it seemed. "The conversation turned to what happened to Padraig and I in Rharne. She said that there had been malicious conniving of Aelig, Syroa and Lisirra. Maybe he was working with them?"

The question of whether the aging would stop, Faith did not know and she said so. "I can do some tests and some research. It would help me to do that if you let me take some blood, but it will sting her for a moment. I will make sure it's minimal and will be as gentle as I can, but that is up to you." She reached out and stroked the girl's raven black hair. "She's beautiful and clever, just like her father."

[Tristan Venora]

“I’m always worried about her“, Tristan replied. “There’s an evil Immortal trying to ruin our life, and I don’t know what to do about it. Aelig’s probably immune to alchemy, and I’m not sure if he’ll be particularly impressed if I use my Blessing. I can control emotions and make myself look really attractive!” he explained, case she didn’t know what being a Blessed of Zanik entailed.

For a moment he sounded really happy and proud. Meeting Zanik (and Ilaren!) had been the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him, apart from getting Ayla (he’d never thought that he’d become a father at the ripe old age of twenty-one).

“Ayla!” Tristan exclaimed as the little girl correctly identified the blue brick and showed it to him. His eyes were wide with surprise. Little Ayla did of course not know that she was being examined. She thought that they were playing a game, and she smiled at Tristan.

“Thank you!” he said, as if she had just given him the greatest gift ever and hugged her. “I’ll always keep it safe!”

“So she isn’t actually trying to eat weird stuff?” Tristan asked. Faith’s explanation made a lot of sense, but still, he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. A baby that ate her toys would have been kind of cool! “And what do you mean, you don’t think she’s Aelig’s? Is there another Immortal that is trying to ruin my life?” He didn’t look particularly happy about that prospect. One evil Immortal was enough, thank you very much!

He was about to say something when she showed him her tattoos. “Congratulations”, he said to her because getting multiple blessings from an Immortal was a pretty big deal. “Mine is not as obvious, but still very nice. I get this golden aura when I use one of my abilities. I need to show you sometimes, when we aren’t being tormented by evil Immortals!”

With that he reverted to being worried and kind of sad. “Probably”, he replied. “Does that mean that I slept with Syroa or Lisirra while they were disguised as you though? Do you know what their domains are, Faith? Maybe there’s something that we will be able to use against them!” That he’d apparently shared the bed of another pretty female Immortal didn’t excite him in the least, he just wanted Syroa and Lisirra to be gone!

As Faith told him that she would be as gentle as she could, he nodded. “I’ll hold Ayla while you take her blood though”, he told her. “Maybe she will be a little less scared then.”

[Faith Augustin]

Faith looked up at him as he said that he could control emotions and make himself look attractive. "Your own, or other people's emotions?" Faith wondered and then sighed, slightly and shook her head a little. She hated the idea of it; for such a long time it was the only thing that she had been in control of, her own emotions, and now there were people who were able to take even that away? "Please don't ever control mine. As for being attractive, well, you hardly need that. You're a very handsome man." It was the Venora skin that did it she considered and she smiled at him, somewhat sadly. "Aelig wants happiness, I think. He wants to prove that people who appear to be happy, aren't. Maybe." Without a doubt, he was an Immortal Faith would happily never meet again.

Tristan's thought process, as scattered as it was, made sense and Faith considered carefully as she clapped for the little girl who looked so like her. Like the baby she and Tristan could have made together. Reaching out and stroking Ayla's hair away from her face, Faith realised that she was glad that they had not. A small part of her had been thinking that maybe this was Rose, that maybe, just maybe. Yet she knew that this was not her daughter and it gave her nothing but relief. As beautiful as Ayla was and as much as Faith was very happy to love her, if the child had been hers then she could not ever tell her that she had been conceived in love. The child which was nestled, tiny and unknown to any except her and Padraig? That baby had been conceived in love, there was no doubt about it.

"Lust, acting, fury and transformation," Faith said. "That's Syroa. Lisirra is insects, I know that. I think plague or toxin, that kind of thing. I charged at her on the rooftop of Treid's tomb, but Padraig pulled me away from her and he stabbed her." She sighed and looked at Tristan as he asked and her expression was rather sad as she nodded. "Yes, Tristan, that's exactly what I think happened. Between Illusion and Transformation, I'd say they've got it covered. So, maybe she's the mother. Doesn't matter, though. This is your daughter and she's very clever aren't you poppet?" Faith put a smile on her face and closed the lid on the thoughts which were going through her mind.

Whilst he had been with Syroa or Lisirra, where had she been? Had Aelig actually....?

"I'll do it, quick and as painless as I can, I promise you." Faith said, of Ayla and taking blood. She got her things together and then put some tincture on the baby which should ease or completely stop the pain, numbing the site. She left it there for a little while, distracting her with toys and games and then when she took blood, she did so quickly and efficiently. "There we go, beautiful girl, all done. Oh, you were brave. Look... let's see what Faith brought for you, shall we?" However she reacted, Faith decided then was a good time to bring out the gifts she had brought, pulled from her Domain Bag.

There were wooden toys ~ blocks and shape sorters, small world play things like houses and a farm with animals, all crafted from wood. Also, knitted soft toys of all shapes and sizes. She handed Tristan the blankets and clothes she'd made, but tried to distract Ayla with the toys. "I made these for you, look. What's this? Can you help me find the cow, Ayla? What about the pig? Oh, look! Here's the pig!" Focusing on the farm animals, she smiled to Tristan. "I hope you don't mind that I made her a few things."

As they played together, Faith spoke to Tristan with a soft voice. "She's very healthy, very happy. You're doing an excellent job, Tristan. I found out that I have a twin, called Morana Nardovino. And a half sister, called Rey'na. I was born here, in Andaris. Isn't it strange. I would have been Vesna Nardovino, but they only wanted one child. So they sold me." When she spoke, there was no accusation or dislike in her voice, it just what it was. When she said her next words, though, there was a slight tinge of amusement. "I was born in Venora. It's where my father is buried." For all that she sounded just like herself, she didn't make eye contact, instead concentrating on playing with the farm animals for the little girl.

Off Topic

I've deducted 40gn for wood, yarn, paints etc for making these. Faith is expert at carpentry for the wooden toys and grandmaster with sewing for the other stuff.

[Tristan Venora]

“Just other people’s emotions“, Tristan said. “And please don’t worry. I’d never do that to you! That ability is only temporary anyway, and it only works when I’m singing or playing music. The only instrument that I play is the piano, and I don’t have one here!” He gestured towards the living area that contained a lot of things, but nothing that even remotely resembled a piano. “That’s the downside of being a piano player with Elithem. I can’t take the instrument that I need for my abilities to work with me. Maybe I should take singing lessons or learn to play the lute – or invent a portable piano.”

“Or maybe not”, he murmured and let out a deep sigh. Faith hadn’t looked particularly happy when he had mentioned his ability. To him it seemed like a fun way to enhance his music a little. He had never even thought about using it for some sort of nefarious purpose – unless it involved manipulating Aelig and his friends. If he ever met Aelig again and there happened to be a piano nearby, he would manipulate his emotions so much that he went crazy and forgot who he was!

“Maybe Aelig is doing all those evil things because he is unhappy then”, he mused. Normally he would try what he could to make an unhappy person happy again because everybody should be happy in his opinion, but he wasn’t sure if he would be able to bring himself to helping Aelig. The Immortal had caused Faith and him too much pain.

“But … but …” he stammered as Faith revealed that one of Syroa’s domains was acting. “I’m a playwright. I work for the theatre. I even took acting classes. Why is Syroa trying to hurt me? Shouldn’t she love me and want to bless me? Maybe she doesn’t know. Maybe I should tell her so that she realized her mistake and helps me fight Aelig and Lisirra instead”, he murmured. It didn’t make any sense to him!

“You are right, it doesn’t matter”, he agreed. No matter who Ayla’s mother was and how she had been brought into this world, he was her father, and she was his daughter, and he’d always love her. And by the Immortals, he hoped that she didn’t understand what Faith and he were talking about. He didn’t want her to be confused and scared!

He held her while Faith took her blood and talked to her, about how she could play with Mistral again when he came back, about all the fun things they would do together and that she was the best little girl on Idalos. He was trying to distract her so that she wouldn’t notice what Faith was doing.

“Ayla, look at that!” he exclaimed as Faith produced her Domain Bag. He didn’t have to pretend to be surprised. He really was. How could the bag contain all that stuff? Was it magic? He wanted such a bag as well! “Faith has a few gifts for you!” He sat Ayla on the floor again so that she could crawl over to Faith and play. The little girl did so happily.

“I don’t mind at all”, he said to Faith and returned the smile. “I think she likes her new toys!” Ayla was currently holding the cow in one hand and the pig in the other hand and smashing them together, a huge smile on her face. Tristan wondered if she was making the animals fight or if she was pretending that they were in love. It was a pity that she couldn’t tell him!

As Faith told him that Ayla was very healthy, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “I met a woman that looked just like you once”, he told her. “Mistral was depressed because we moved to Oakleigh, so I ordered a couple of cat toys from a toymaker. The woman could have been your twin. Maybe she was Morana or Rey’na. I can contact her if you want to.” He paused and looked at her. “Do you want me to call you Vesna?”

While Faith appeared to be strangely calm, Tristan was horrified. How could any parent just abandon their child? He would never abandon Ayla! “Oh, Faith”, he murmured. “I didn’t know. Is there anything I can do for you?”